Skip to main content

Stage 7 - Gernsheim to Wiesbaden 63km (10-Jun-2019)

Woke up to an overcast day, yet quite warm as we discovered, when we got going around 9am. Streets were pretty deserted as today was a public holiday (Pfingsten). A late change of route today based on input from our really nice host resulting on us following Bike Route 6; EV15 towards Oppenheim to cross the Rhine instead of from Gernsheim as planned. As it turned, it was well worth it; firstly it hardly added any kms to our journey and secondly it was truly beautiful as advised.






Along the way, we stopped to chat to some local folks, a proud grandad on a bike route with his grandson; very happy to talk abut the groups of cyclists from all over Europe who repeatedly cycle through his village annually. 


And a couple taking their dogs for a walk who were very enthusiastic to talk about Australia and New Zealand. 


We also took the opportunity to take each others photos hoping to capture the quiet and still morning.



We finally reached Kornsand (east side of the Rhine) to catch the ferry to Nierstein (west side of Rhine); we were back on track with route on the Garmin created by my mate, Ellwood.



Heading north, mostly along the Rhine, we got to Mainz, where Ursi finally got her decaf coffee at the local Rowing Club restaurant. Heavenly. Took the opportunity to take this photo from where we were sitting of a marina along with a couple more as we rode further along the promenade. . 




Riding along the Mainz promenade, we came across a memorable exhibition called “Gegen das Vergessen”, translated “Against Forgetting”. It is a photographic exhibition from the German/Italian photographer/film-maker Luigi Toscano. He visited almost 300 survivors of the second world war/holocaust who now live in various countries across the world. The exhibition displays a large photo of the face of each survivor and a short story on what happened to them and their families. It is seriously confronting but incredibly important for their stories to not be forgotten.



Finally we got to our hotel in Wiesbaden which turned out to be very close to the old town. Had a  perfect end to another perfect day by catching up with an old family friend (now living in Frankfurt)  Hedrick, (son of our friends Hartwig (from Ljubljana) and Ingrid). Hendrick was 5 or 6 years old when we first met him; it always good to see him.









Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Stage 22 - Schengen to Wasserbillig via Trier 70km (24-Jul-2019)

All good things come to an end (more about that later). Today's stage along the River Moselle was a late addition into our itinerary; more opportunistic than anything else. We decided to spend a couple of days in Luxembourg, 1 day visiting Luxembourg city, (which is one big construction site at the moment) which we did yesterday and 1 day to ride somewhere, which is what we did today on a seriously hot day with the temperatures hitting 38deg. Early start to catch the 9.05am bus to Schengen, where the treaty to open up the European borders was signed, yes, local buses to take bikes. Un loaded our bikes on arrival at Schengen and made our way a few 100 meters to the magnificent bike path on the Luxembourg bank of River Moselle; the other bank is Germany, to the town of Trier (Karl Marx's birthplace) in Germany. Must admit the river appeared a tad untidy but the landscape of vineyards were breath taking. Stopped a few time to take some photos of birdlife, towns an...
Post a Comment
Read more

Rest day in Bruges - Damme

It's called a rest day but in reality it isn't. From time to time we take a day off the tour to discover a town and surroundings and on this occasion, that is exactly what we did. Early breakie of muesli, greek yoghurt and milk and we were good to go by 9.30am on our bikes. Making our way through the town on cobbled stone roads (not the most comfortable way to ride a bike) to the railway station, noticed how deserted the town looked compared to yesterday. Stopped a few times as you do to take these photos. Slowly made our way to the station to buy tickets for tomorrow's 4 hour train ride to Aarlon for the short 36km ride from there to Luxembourg, our final destination where we are planning to spend 3 mights before making our way by public transport to Zurich. To date, we have ridden 1,541km (including today's rides) with one short stage to go from Aarlon to Luxembourg and a planned 70km on one of our rest days in Luxembourg. Back to today, Be...
Post a Comment
Read more

Stage 3 - Seeon Seebrook to Salzburg - 60km (03-May-2019)

It’s wet and cold; at home, neither would I go for a ride nor play golf in these conditions but here, I have to soldier on.  And soldier on, I did, on near perfect bike paths most of the way, sometime through the countryside, sometime parallel to the B roads as I made way towards Salzburg. Not many photo taking opportunities until I got to Traunstein, where the town square was alive with market vendors and town folks. There was an orderly queue outside one of the stalls selling fresh Spargle (Asparagus), a seasonal delicacy, which I am partial to as well. I got talking to a lady there as you do; who was kind enough to tell me more about the town’s history and why she believed it was god’s own place for her and offered to take this mug shot of mine for prosperity to remember her beloved town. Got lost trying to get out of town; my Garmin doesn’t acknowledge road works which was blocking my route so ended up asking another young lady on how I could cross...
1 comment
Read more